Colour image detection and matching using modified generalisedHough transform

A new approach to 2-dimensional (2D) colour-image detection and matching using a modified version of the generalised Hough transform (GHT) is proposed. In the conventional GHT, the useful colour information existing in the input image and the relationship between each pixel and its neighbourhood are not used. Furthermore, lighting changes in the image are not usually considered. Therefore, the conventional GHT is seldom applied to colour images. In the proposed approach, lighting are removed using normalised colour values. Next, certain critical pixels of an input colour image whose neighbourhoods have larger variances of normalised colour values are extracted. For each critical pixel, a feature vector, which includes the normalised colour values of the pixel as well as those of the pixel's neighbours, is then constructed. A modified voting rule for the GHT is therefore proposed which is based on a similarity-measure function of the feature vectors. High maximum peaks in the cell array are searched finally as the result. The proposed method is robust for colour-image detection and matching in noisy, occlusive, and lighting-change environments, as demonstrated by experimental results     

Design techniques for high-frequency CMOS switched-capacitorfilters using non-op-amp-based unity-gain amplifiers

A fully differential non-op-amp-based unity-gain amplifier (UGA) is proposed, whose 3-dB frequency can be as high as 250 MHz in 3.5-μm p-well CMOS technology. The purpose is to develop a new design concept for high-frequency switched-capacitor (SC) filters which uses balanced non-op-amp type UGAs with tunable gain to replace conventional op-amp-based unity-gain buffers (UGBs). The proposed UGA has a normal gain of unit, but it has a greater bandwidth, better setting behavior, smaller chip area, and less transistors than op-amp-based UGB. The new UGA also has a fully differential balanced configuration. The balanced configuration and proper predistortion by CAD tools can reduce the error due to linear parasitic capacitances. Experimental results prove the capability of the proposed structures in the realization of high-frequency SC filters over the megahertz range     

A general theory of broadband matching of an active load

Given a passive frequency-dependent source impedance and an active or passive load and a preassigned transducer power-gain characteristic, necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the existence of a lossless reciprocal equalizer which, when operating between the given source and the given load, yields the desired transducer power-gain characteristic. The significance of the present approach is that the realization of the equalizer involves only driving-point synthesis by the Darlington theory.     

Ho arrangement in the Zn6Mg3Ho icosahedral quasicrystal studied by atomic-resolution Z-contrast STEM

The atomic structure of the Zn6Mg3Ho icosahedral quasicrystal has been studied by high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) with Z-contrast (Z: atomic number). We demonstrate that in particular Z-contrast imaging is quite powerful for specifying heavy atom positions in the quasicrystalline compound, as shown by a comparison with high-resolution phase-contrast imaging. It is confirmed that the observed Z-contrast images are fairly well explained by the projected potential of only the Ho atomic arrangement, which was recently proposed by X-ray diffraction analysis; Ho occupies an even-body-center site of the 3-dimensional Penrose lattice. Consequently, the present direct structural observation strongly supports the validity of the proposed Ho site.     

大尺寸TFT-LCD电视的彩色和图像增强

最近几年,薄膜晶体管液晶显示器(TFT-LCD)技术取得了快速而显著的进步,其性能超过了PDP、CRT以及投影显示。毫无疑问,TFT-LCD已经成为高清电视应用的最佳实现方案。本文将介绍进一步增强大尺寸LCD电视的彩色和图像性能的技术。     

Maximal Delay Reduction for RLC-Based Multi-Source Multi-Sink Bus with Repeater Insertion

Signal propagation delay on a multi-source multi-sink bidirectional bus has a dominant effect on high-performance chips. This work presents a novel greedy algorithm that minimizes the critical propagation delay of an RLC-based bus. Based on the topology of a multi-source multi-sink bus and the RLC delay model, the proposed algorithm inserts signal repeaters into the critical path of the RLC-based bus and adjusts their sizes to minimize the maximal propagation delay. This procedure is repeated until no additional improvement is needed. Several buses with various topologies are tested using the proposed algorithm in deep submicron technologies. Experimentally, the critical delay in an RLC-based bus can be reduced dramatically by up to 62.4% with inserted repeater sizes of 24 and execution time of 1.65 s on average. Moreover, average delay reduction, repeater sizes, and running time for 0.18 μm technology are 5.8%, 6.4%, and 26.2%, respectively, better than those of 0.35 μm. Additionally, the topologies of all of the RLC-based buses with inserted repeaters in deep submicron technologies are simulated using HSPICE. The error ratio in the critical delay of a bus with inserted repeaters determined by comparison with HSPICE is 2.7% on average. The proposed algorithm is simple and extremely practical.     

K-band MMIC active band-pass filters

Two K-band active band-pass filters using 0.15-/spl mu/m GaAs pHEMT technology, with one fixed-frequency and the other tunable, are designed, fabricated, and tested. The fixed-frequency filter has its central frequency at 22.6 GHz, with 900-MHz bandwidth (4%). The tunable filter can be tuned from 19.5 to 21.5 GHz with the same bandwidth. Both circuits have a common size of 1 mm /spl times/ 1 mm. To our knowledge, the tunable filter is the highest frequency tunable active filter ever reported.     

Field theoretical treatment of H-plane waveguide junctionswith anisotropic medium

A method based on the equivalence principle and cavity field expansions is used to analyze an H-plane waveguide junction containing an anisotropic (ferrite or composite ferrite) post. Using the equivalence principle, magnetic surface currents are introduced at the imaginary boundaries chosen between the central region of the junction and the waveguides. The electric displacement in the junction can be completely expressed in terms of a solenoidal set. On the other hand, the magnetic induction in the junction must be expressed in terms of a solenoidal set and an irrotational set. Continuing the tangential magnetic field at the imaginary boundaries leads to a matrix equation, the unknowns of which are the amplitudes of the scattered waveguide modes. Using this method, H-plane waveguide junctions with ferrite and composite ferrite posts are considered. The numerical results show excellent agreement with previously published experimental and theoretical results     

A Low-Latency Multi-layer Prefix Grouping Technique for Parallel Huffman Decoding of Multimedia Standards

Huffman coding is a popular and important lossless compression scheme for various multimedia applications. This paper presents a low-latency parallel Huffman decoding technique with efficient memory usage for multimedia standards. First, the multi-layer prefix grouping technique is proposed for sub-group partition. It exploits the prefix characteristic in Huffman codewords to solve the problem of table size explosion. Second, a two-level table lookup approach is introduced which can promptly branch to the correct sub-group by level-1 table lookup and decode the symbols by level-2 table lookup. Third, two optimization approaches are developed; one is to reduce the branch cycles and the other is parallel processing between two-level table lookup and direct table lookup approaches to fully utilize the advantage of VLIW parallel processing. An AAC Huffman decoding example is realized on the Parallel Architecture Core DSP (PAC DSP) processor. The simulation results show that the proposed method can further improve about 89% of decoding cycles and 33% of table size comparing to the linear search method.

Enhanced Thermal Stability and Efficiency of Polymer Bulk‐Heterojunction Solar Cells by Low‐Temperature Drying of the Active Layer

This study addresses two key issues, stability and efficiency, of polymer solar cells based on blended poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]‐phenyl‐C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) by demonstrating a film‐forming process that involves low‐temperature drying (?5 °C) and subsequent annealing of the active layer. The low‐temperature process achieves 4.70% power conversion efficiency (PCE) and ～1250 h storage half‐life at 65 °C, which are significant improvements over the 3.39% PCE and ～143 h half‐life of the regular room‐temperature process. The improvements are attributed to the enhanced nucleation of P3HT crystallites as well as the minimized separation of the P3HT and PCBM phases at the low drying temperature, which upon post‐drying annealing results in a morphology consisting of small PCBM‐rich domains interspersed within a densely interconnected P3HT crystal network. This morphology provides ample bulk‐heterojunction area for charge generation while allowing for facile charge transport; moreover, the P3HT crystal network serves as an immobile frame at heating temperatures less than the melting point (T_m) of P3HT, thus preventing PCBM/P3HT phase separation and the corresponding device degradation.